2/28/08

I got in a car with a girl and drove to Lawrence. Lawrence is three hours from Springfield. We drove for a long time. We listened to NPR. We had talked before about how we were leaving at a time that would be good for listening to NPR. The station started to not come in. We stopped. I had a headache. We bought things. Pills helped my headache some. We kept driving.

We wanted to eat at the Indian restaurant in Lawrence. We had eaten there before. We wanted to go there again. There was a thing we talked about that involved my brother. I called my brother. I said 'We are almost in Lawrence. We are going to eat. You should meet us.' My brother said some things that were confusing. I didn't know what he meant.

He wanted us to go to his house. He said 'There is something wrong with the communication.' He thought it was funny. It was funny but I was upset about not knowing what was going on. We went to my brother's house. My sister-in-law and my nephew were making dinner. It was a vegetarian dinner. It might have been a vegan dinner. I'm not sure. It was stir-fry and spring rolls. We ate the things. I was impressed by how my nephew made such good stir-fry. My other nephew had written some stories. We read one of the stories. It was funny and long and about a boy and his mother. The story had a line that was like... I can't remember what the line was like. It was funny.

We had to leave for the reading. We didn't know if a lot of people were going to be at the reading. We didn't want to be late. We didn't want to be early. We were uncertain about when to leave. My brother said some things about the 6 Gallery. He said some things about a music shop. He said some things about four galleries closing. The things were interesting. We looked at the internet. We looked at StreetView. We looked at the gallery. It was hard to find.

We drove downtown for the reading. We parked and then looked inside the door at 6 Gallery and no one was inside. There were empty chairs. We went across the street to use the restroom at a bookstore. We also bought coffee and two cookies. The lady put the cookies in the microwave so they were warm. The cookies were good. The coffee was good. I think we both had headaches a little. We went back across the street. There were lots of people now. All the seats had people. There was some confusion about where people were standing and if there were any more seats.

I didn't know anyone at the reading.

We stood in a place where we could see the podium. I saw Tao Lin. He had a plastic cup with wine, I think. I saw Deb Olin Unferth. I saw other people.

We couldn't lean against the wall where we were standing because of art. A lot of art was hanging on the walls. There was a wall in the middle of the room that didn't make any sense. A lot of people were sitting on the steps and standing around by the entrance. I stood very still. I looked at the podium. I thought about how Tao had written things about people laughing at his readings. I thought about how Tao had written things about not doing any more readings.

I listened to the reading.

I laughed some.

A lady standing in front of us kept moving around. She was maybe one of the people who had organized everything. I was grateful for organizing but not for moving around. People were trying to sell shirts. We left.